The requirement to collect 2% pension tax from transactions to buy cash foreign currency lost effect on January 1, 2017, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has told Interfax-Ukraine.

"The article to annul 2% tax took effect and it is not collected from January 1, 2017," the press service of the regulator said.

As reported, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada revoked 2% pension tax imposed on cash currency purchase transactions on December 20, 2016. The requirement is outlined in bill No. 5132 amending the Tax Code to provide for the balance of budget revenue in 2017 (law No. 1791-VIII).

Tax on forex operations for the first time was introduced in 1998 as a temporary anti-crisis measure. Its rate was 1.5% before 2006. It was then lowered to 1.3% and was cut to 1% in 2007, 0.5% in 2008 and further to 0.2% in 2009.

In January 2011, the Rada cancelled pension tax on forex transactions, but in 2014 it set the rate at 0.5% again.

From 2015, it was increased from 0.5% to 2%, but it is applied to purchases of foreign currency in cash with legal entities being exempt from this tax.

The initiators of the bill said that Ukraine's shadow market exceeded 50%, which creates the additional pressure on the hryvnia and hampers the operations of the forex market in the country. The NBU and international financial institutions (IFIs) backed the idea.